Chapter Two - The Diner

Present Day

Desert Wasteland (10 miles from the crash site)

Catherine was starting to feel the heat three hours into the desert hike, but she attempted to hide her jadedness from her companion. Hunter, for his part, didn’t seem phased by the sweltering temperatures in the middle of nowhere on this alien planet. The well-built man confidently strode a few meters ahead of his reluctant traveling partner, occasionally pausing for a moment to allow her to catch up. While it looked like he was the group’s ringleader, Captain Knight was the one holding the laser pistol, and she wouldn’t hesitate to use it if Hunter stepped out of line.

“Do you need a rest, Kitty? Perhaps you would like a massage?” Hunter jestingly remarked during his latest pause to help her catch up.

Catherine was getting tired of his juvenile taunts, and that pet nickname he coined for her was starting to rile her up. She raised her arm to point the weapon in his direction, unclipping the safety; Catherine had the pistol aimed directly at the man’s head. “My name is Catherine! If you forget it one more time, I will be happy to remind you another way.” She retorted in bitterness before lowering the gun and firing a warning shot a few mere inches from his feet. It perhaps wasn’t the best use of her limited ammo, but she needed to show the outlaw precisely who was in charge.

Hunter appeared to receive the message clearly, holding his hands up before silently continuing the draining journey. Catherine continued following a few meters behind the convict, ensuring she had an eye on his every move. The silhouette of the settlement in the distance didn’t seem to be getting any more prominent, and the vast wasteland they marched through showed no signs of intelligent life.

During the silent walk, Catherine rued her decision to take this mission. She had spent the last few years despising this man, creating vivid fantasies in her mind surrounding his deserved demise. In his mid-forties, his hairline had started to recede with the odd strand of gray in the midst of what was left of his black mane. He was tall, a full foot taller than his companion, and his well-defined muscles bulged out from the tattered blue jumpsuit he donned.

There was an air of tension the longer the hike continued, with Catherine refusing to engage in small talk with her criminal guide and the desert heat showing no sign of relenting. Just as Hunter paused to suggest that they rest for a little while, Catherine noticed something in the corner of her eyes. About half a mile down the road, she spotted a rustic building that looked eerily similar to an old frontier bar back on Earth. Several vehicles appeared to be parked outside the building.

“Look, over there!” Catherine shouted. It was the first time she initiated any form of dialogue with her guide since they crash-landed on this planet. “Maybe we can find someone there willing to take us into town.”

Hunter looked over in the direction she was pointed and let out a hearty chuckle. He shook his head before speaking dismissively. “I don’t think so, Kitty. Come on, we should keep moving.” He turned around to continue the journey but suddenly froze on the spot when he registered the sound of Catherine’s safety clip being removed again.

“I don’t know what your deal is or why General Mitchell believes that I can trust you on this mission, but we have been wandering the desert for hours on end, and we are no closer to that damn town!” Catherine ranted. “I am the commander of this mission, and we are going to head for that building and find some help!”

Hunter chuckled at her outburst. “Did you bring me along as a guide or not? And as the guide, I am telling you we will continue onward.”

“I don’t need a damn guide, I will find them myself!” Catherine exclaimed her fury. Without acknowledging her traveling partner, she turned towards the rustic building in the near distance and started marching without him.

Hunter stood in the desert heat, his hands on his hips, staring at the young blond Captain treading further away. He shakes his head while retaining the amused grin on his rugged face. “What are you walking into?” He mutters quietly to himself.

❖

Dollhouse Diner

The chime of the diner door opening sounded, and the establishment came to a silencing halt as Catherine made her way inside. She paused and looked around. Inside the diner were roughly a dozen men, and they all stared at her as though they had never seen a woman before; maybe they hadn’t.

Captain Knight stepped forward, trying to ignore the eyes on her, examining the rest of the establishment. It was decorated with a strange mix of color coordination, with areas of the diner split up into sections of red, pink, blue, and green. The atmosphere felt completely off, though. The male-heavy aurora in the room unsettled her, but she continued approaching the man behind the counter. Perhaps there were no women on this planet.

Suddenly, Catherine paused in her tracks at the sight that formed ahead of her, which completely negated her previous thought. The double doors that led to the kitchen opened, and a beautiful redheaded woman stepped through. The sight of a woman walking through the doors was not alarming in itself, but the woman’s attire left Catherine feeling confused and angry.

Most notable was that the woman was effectively naked, with no cloth covering her large breasts or totally bare pussy. The woman had a serving tray attached to her waist, being held up by two chains that were attached to hooped silver piercings in her nipples. Her arms were hidden behind her back, tightly laced up and bound inside a bright red leather armbinder, with the straps resting just under her breasts. Her fiery red hair framed her face and flowed freely down her back. The most prominent feature on her face, though, was the huge red ball wedged between her teeth, a red strap tightly pulled behind her head, keeping it in place and preventing her from making a sound. Completing the ensemble were the horrific-looking bright red leather thigh-length boots the woman adorned on her feet. The heels of her footwear were the tallest that Catherine had ever seen and was in no way practical to wear, forcing the redhead to totter on the very tips of her toes. What Catherine didn’t yet notice was the large red princess plug buried deep inside the woman’s ass which would vibrate whenever a patron in the red section of the diner pressed a button on their table for service.

Catherine covered her mouth with her hand, witnessing the sight of the bound figure slowly tottering towards the tables in the red section. Had she stumbled into some weird fetish bar? Is that why everyone was staring at her? The men all looked modestly dressed in comparison.

Catherine approached the large man standing behind the counter, his mouth agape in astonishment as she stepped forward in her tattered blue space suit. A moment before Catherine parted her lips to speak to the man, she noticed another figure in the corner of her eyes, slowly moving through those double doors. This woman was dressed like the previous poor waitress, except everything was bright pink. Her hair was a long, free-flowing river of candy pink curls, and the large ball gag lodged in her mouth was similarly colored, as were the armbinder and ballet boots. The woman had a distressed look in her eyes, moving much more timidly than the redhead as if she was not as experienced in wearing the preposterous outfit.

Catherine willed herself to look away and focus on the bewildered man before her. “Excuse me, I need some assistance or information, and I hope you can help.” The large, bald man looked more astonished when he heard her speak. Catherine momentarily thought that English may not be recognizable on this planet. English was the most commonly used intergalactic language between planets, but Dominae was so isolated that it was possible the language may not have traveled this far.

“Is this some weird joke? Did Randy put you up to this? He has a sick sense of humor.” The burly cafe owner remarked, amused by what he saw before him.

“Joke? No, I am looking for two of my friends who were taken to-“

“Okay, enough talking, you’re making my customers uncomfortable.” He rudely interrupted her in the middle of her explanation. “Now, let’s get this off of you. You know the rules…” he spoke casually before moving his hand over the counter and pulling off one of the buttons of Catherine’s torn spacesuit.

“Get your filthy hands off me!” Catherine spat back, smacking his hand away. She stepped back and pulled her pistol from her holster, directing it squarely at the diner’s owner. Catherine’s sudden hostility was not received well by the patrons of his cafe as an audible gasp was heard; a number of the men even rose to their feet.

There was a charged tension in the atmosphere, everyone staring at the hostile Captain, frozen in place with her gun raised and ready to shoot. From one of the corner booths of the diner, one of the standing men hurled a device in Catherine’s direction. Before she had any time to react, a thick, silver metal cuff opened itself up and wrapped around Catherine’s wrist, forcing her to drop the weapon in her possession. The cuff then pulled her arm down, located the hand down by her side, and wrapped the second half of the cuff around her second wrist, forcing her hands together in front of her. The seemingly sentient thick cuffs then pulled her wrists up against the counter in front of her before sticking to the counter, leaving the Captain slightly bent over, unable to rip her hands away from the devious equipment.

As Catherine attempted to free herself from her sudden binds, the atmosphere became more relaxed, with patrons joking about the scene that had just played out before them. As Catherine attempted to wrestle her way out of the locked cuffs, two men wearing the same black uniform with a star badge on their crest approached her and stepped on either side.

“You are under arrest for breach of the peace, attempted assault, and public indecency…” Catherine gasped out loud. Were these men on-duty police officers? Sat in a fetish bar in the middle of the day? What the hell is wrong with this planet? Catherine’s mind raced, still battling against the thick metal keeping her in place.

“Look-…” Catherine started to explain herself before one of the officers slapped her across the cheek, causing her to yelp in both pain and shock. Just as she was about to make another attempt at reasoning with the officer, a jingle from the front door opening forced her to pause, although her positioning made it hard for her to turn her head and see who the new visitor was.

“You seem to have gotten yourself into a little trouble there, Kitty.” The sound of Hunter’s voice caused Catherine’s heart to sink. The joyous snicker in his voice was like a stab to her gut, obviously relishing in her compromising predicament. “Officers, may I have a word in private?” Hunter calmly asked the two men, and they obliged him, moving away from the bound Captain and joining the convicted murderer outside.

Catherine felt like some stage show freak, displayed for onlookers to gawk at and ogle. She eventually gave up on attempting to break the intelligent handcuffs, instead examining their construction and integrity. They were evidently made from an element not known on Earth. They felt incredibly light, but they were also super durable and had a wet look appearance.

After what felt like an hour but was probably half that, the familiar chime sounded again, and the two officers and Hunter stepped back inside the diner. One of the alien officers stepped up beside Catherine and placed his fingerprint on the smooth surface of the cuffs, causing them both to unlock and free her hands. “You’re a lucky wench.” The cop remarked before strolling away and joining his partner in their original booth.

Catherine stands back up, rubbing her wrists, when she senses the smug bounty hunter approach her. “What the hel-” Hunter immediately pressed a finger to her lips as if to quiet her. What was it with everyone interrupting her since she got here? “Shh, don’t make things worse.” Hunter started, “I had to pay a handsome sum already paying off those upstanding officers. They decided to drop the charges, but there is one condition…” He says with a knowing smirk. “You have to leave your weapon here, and your uniform… all of it.” He could barely contain himself when he revealed the stipulation to the Captain.

Catherine’s eyebrows arch, and her lips parted in horror. In any other circumstances, she would believe that he was playing a disgusting joke on her, but she got the sense that he was deadly serious. “There is no way I’m removing my clothes.” She quietly retorted back.

“Well, you have two choices, I guess. Strip down, and we will be on our way, or stay here and let those fine gentlemen take you away in cuffs. That’s an easy decision if you ask me.” Hunter was enjoying every second of this, watching the blond Catherine shake her head in disbelief. “I do have some good news, though. I managed to source us a vehicle, and I know a guy in town who should be able to help us. So strip those clothes off, and we will be on our way to Red Rock in no time.” He snickered. The situation infuriated Catherine, but she saw few other options on this unknown alien planet.

❖

In all her 26 years of breathing, Catherine had never felt as humiliated as this moment. Waiting outside the diner, waiting for Hunter to return with his promised vehicle, she stood as naked as the day she was born. Catherine wasn’t allowed to leave the cafe until every piece of her clothing was removed. Her jumpsuit, boots, boxer shorts, sports bra, pistol and holster, and utility belt were all left behind. Using one hand to cover her exposed breasts and the other to maintain her modesty in the crotch area, she noticed the sound of a roaring engine booming louder and louder until pulling up beside her was Hunter riding what looked like an Earth-made Harley Davidson Chopper motorcycle.

Hunter cut off the engine and kicked out the sidestand, admiring the feminine figure before him as he stood. Catherine was much shorter than he was, at only 5’4, and her body had the kind of curves that any man would admire. She obviously spent a lot of time in the gym, with a budding six-pack on her torso and defined muscles in her arms. Catherine noticed him ogling her and cleared her throat audibly to reign him back in.

“Your chariot awaits.” Hunter sarcastically spoke, stepping aside to allow the naked blond to step forward. “Hold on to the handlebars behind you; it’s a bumpy road to Red Rock.” Catherine rolled her eyes but stepped forward nonetheless. She knew it would be too much to expect a luxury sedan with heavily tinted windows, but she was not prepared for a motorcycle.

“I am going to kill you before we get off this shitty planet, convict.” She retorts defiantly, arching her leg over the bike and placing her bare feet on the footpegs, adjusting her position on the back of the chopper before reluctantly tearing her arm away from her chest and putting both of them on the handlebars behind her.

Hunter took a moment to appreciate the image of the naked Captain straddled over the bike, exposing her modest C-cup breasts to the world. Eventually, he strolled over to the front of the bike and pressed a button on the dashboard. Catherine suddenly heard a whirring sound until a sudden tightness gripped her ankles and wrists. Metallic cuffs maneuvered themselves from the bike’s footpegs and tightly bound themselves around Catherine’s ankles, keeping them locked in place. The same thing happened to her hands, with the metallic material projected out from the handlebars and tightly wrapped themselves around each of her wrists. She was now stuck on the bike with her bare body exposed, and no amount of struggling was going to free her. “You sonofabitch, what the hell did you just do?” She spat out at him.

Hunter serenely smiled, evidently enjoying her predicament. “I told you it was a bumpy ride; this will ensure you stay in place.” Without waiting for a response, he picked up an object hanging from the front of the chopper and positioned himself behind her. “After all, safety first.” He whispered in her ear before placing a helmet on her head. As soon as the helmet was fitted, a visor suddenly wrapped itself over her eyes and dimmed entirely, sinking her into darkness. A strap pulled out from the side of the helmet, wrapping over her chin before attaching itself to the opposite side. Once attached, the strap expanded, moving over her mouth and forcing a small ball inside Catherine’s unprepared mouth. “Whag—“ Catherine started to squeal until the ball began to expand, growing larger and larger, forcing Catherine to open her mouth even wider until a colossal ball muffled any of her questions or complaints.

Shaking her head violently, the helmet keeping her blinded and gagged refused to budge. “Mmrpph Mophhh!” She attempted to scream coherently, but her pleas were ignored. Hunter mounted the motorcycle and leaned back, whispering to the gagged blond, “You have much to learn about this planet, Kitty, if you ever want to get your friends back.” The sound of the loud engine starting drowned out his laugh before he revved his bike a couple of times and then started riding off towards the settlement in the distance.